Because Jesus has come to us as God the Son, we can now be solidly linked to God. Jesus has said to all, "If you knew me, you would know my Father also." We can no longer say we don't see or hear God or we cannot get to know him. In fact, we can receive his body and blood in the Holy Eucharist and attain union with him! God is now all ours for the asking.
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Liberated From the Self
Communion experience. One who lives a self-centered life is not free. Receiving the Lord and being liberated by him is all about forgetting about yourself and living for him alone.
**Our Key Revelation
The Apostles (Judas Iscariot excepted) knew that Jesus was the Christ. That was a tremendous revelation (gift) from God. If we also recognize and believe that Jesus is our Savior, then we have also been chosen. Now we are God's own.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
**Most Exciting Living*
Life becomes most exciting and rewarding when you go all out for God. For your discover that you can attain union with the Almighty and be transformed by him into a creature delightful to him! You can't help but be delighted about yourself too.
*Obedience Makes Perfection
The Lord is perfect. On earth with his help, we can grow to be more perfect. But compared to him, we'll always be imperfect. How perfect we can be depends upon how much we are obedient to him.
**The God Who Is Love
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, Jesus taught the people and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. As a matter of fact, he spoke throughout his ministry with authority and power, yet he is never authoritarian. He is the Lord, but never lord it over us. He is truly the God who is love.
**How to Love Right
To truly show your love for someone is to respect that person's wish and not do to him what you think might make him happy. For example, my son gives me a nice gift on Father's day. I appreciate that. But I would be so much happier if he would watch some videos I sincerely wish he'd watch instead. In other words, you take into consideration of what your loved one desires. It's the same way to love God. We simply obey him, not doing what we think might please him, which, of course, could turn out to be the same thing, but the motivation is different.
Monday, September 3, 2018
**Important & Not So Important Things
I was weeding in my yard early this morning when it was still cool. It may still take a few more mornings to finish weeding all around the house. The Lord made me see that weeding wasn't such an important task, for if I die today, leaving it unfinished would be just fine. So what is important? Let me use an example. Suppose you feel that you should forgive someone, but somehow you keep putting it off. Then you are dying and regret that you haven't let that person know of your intent – that is important. Right now I feel called to share some spiritual insights with someone, I know I should do it ASAP (definitely before I die). As for the weeds, one day they might get all wiped out or get to grow madly – who cares? So you see, anything you do for the sake of the Lord then is important.
*One Reason We Need God
We cannot cleanse ourselves of sins, so we cannot become holy on our own. Only God can take sins away from us, so only he can make us holy. We absolutely need him.
**Your Lord and Your Teacher
God is our absolute standard. The saints are great, but not perfect. Anyone one, no matter how holy he might be, pales to nothing when measured against the Lord. Therefore, you may bypass all the saints and look up to the Lord only for inspiration and guidance. The Lord is your only master. Let him be your only teacher too.
**True Love, Fake Love
God loves us with a pure, unconditional love. Whether you are a sinner or saint, an unbeliever or a devout Christian, he loves you just the same. This is loving by will, unaffected by feelings or emotions – the way he wants us to love others. It makes loving the unlovable or our enemies possible. The is true love. As for fake love, the best example is provided by some of today's crooked politicians, not much different from the scribes and Pharisees of the days of Jesus. They promise to fight for you, but after securing your votes, never do anything for you. It's like giving you a rope to hang on, never intending to pull you all the way up. This is fake love, which the hypocrites promise but never intend to deliver.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
To Be Unstained by the World
In today's second reading from James 1, the Apostle advised his readers to keep themselves unstained by the world. I say amen to that because the secular, ungodly world is much like a huge mud pond – it's just so easy to get stained by it. But Christ can keep us pure and clean if we'll abandon ourselves in him. For he is our one and only Savior!
*To Forgive Is Divine Indeed
A prominent politician has just passed away and had a most prominent funeral service held for him. He had planned it to make sure that some of his political enemies wouldn't be invited to attend his funeral. He had the right to do so, but my thought is that if you are already on your way to meet your Maker, shouldn't you at least make sure that you no longer hold any grudge against anyone anymore?
Saturday, September 1, 2018
***God Forever Our Hope
God is our great hope. With God our Father, you can alway start afresh – no matter what your past is like – it's never too late – the past is gone, let it go – now you can start with God again with a clean slate – he always waits for you – you are now the prodigal son returning home – get ready for the welcome party – rejoice! – he's ready to cleanse you of your sins and make you holy – amen, now you are set to enjoy heaven in your Father's house for all eternity!
Connecting With God Intimately
Communion experience. I connected with my God most intimately, at the heart, soul, and spirit levels through the Holy Eucharist.
How do We Serve the Lord?
The Gospel reading from Matthew 26 today gave us the parable of talents. Three servants all received talents from their master. Two of them traded with their talents and doubled their money, while the third one just buried his one talent in a hole. On the master's return, the two productive servants were given great responsibilities, while the nonproductive one not only had his talent taken away from him, but also got thrown into the darkness outside. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
It so happened that early this morning before Mass, the Lord got me thinking about how we serve him at different levels. At the highest level, we do everything for the sake of glorifying him. Then we also do things indirectly to serve him better, such as exercising our body, enjoying certain recreation to get us recharged, etc. Descending lower, we do nothing for the Lord nor anything bad. At the lowest lever, we simply go against him in all things. A productive Christian will grow rich (spiritually), while a lazy Christian will lose everything at the end.
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